Our saga continues...
I wanted to give the forum an update, thank everyone who has helped out (esp. jimmythegreek), and ask for more advice...
We left off in February with our pool company rejecting the out-of-level claim. I hired a soils/ground engineer to inspect the pool and the level. They wrote up a full report and delivered it with all the embossed stamps from the certified engineer and state whatever seals (it sure looked official). It described in exact detail the out of level situation, the concrete collar out of spec, et al. The pool company rejected it flat out. They wouldn't accept my "pool lip-to-water" measurements with a tape measure either, so I bought a "one-time use tool" - a laser level for $700.00. I shot the pool with my new laser, confirmed the out of level, and sent it to the pool company. Again, they rejected my measurements.
The next step was to contact another company to dig it out and do it right. This was going to be a bad outcome for the original installer, as my attorney would have then taken the case on contingency and gone after the original installer hard. Many of you already know the folks I reached out to - he is the most honest guy I know in this industry - Daniel Dunn. Dan used to work for River Pools, but cut out, and with his brother, hung his own shingle under the name Bayou Brother Pools (in VA). I almost purchased a pool from Dan when he was with River, but I dragged my feet too long and River tightened their installation radius and I found myself out of range.
Dan was the consummate professional then and is today. Integrity, period. I reached out to Dan and he was amazing in discussing with me the directions this could go. I begged them to do the work to fix our pool and he was gracious enough to agree, even though they have a 3:45hr drive up here. The work was to start end of May, weather permitting. We discussed giving the original pool installer one last shot at it and hiring a job supervisor/consultant to monitor the work.
I then did two things: 1) I contacted Leisure Pools USA (LPUSA) headquarters and got company-level people involved; and 2) I presented the original installer with the option of re-doing their work under supervision or having another company do it and getting sued. After LPUSA learned how botched the job was and how poorly my wife and I had been treated, they leaned on the installer HARD. The installer agreed to remove the pool and re-install it properly (under direct supervision our consultant).
We hired one of the few state-registered expert witnesses (authorized to testify in court cases against shoddy pool practices). He didn’t come cheap - $150/hr. The installer gave us a 3-day scope of work, so we figure $3,600 to a highly-qualified job supervisor was well spent. The consultant contacted Leisure Pools USA’s lead technical director and had an in-depth discussion of proper installation practices for their fiberglass shells. A number of items came up in the original install that were not in accordance with LPUSA’s guidelines. We discussed many of these already, so I won’t detail here, but it included (wrong stone size used, wrong concrete mix, collar not sized properly, collar not tied to shell properly, proper sump pipe, no bucket-loads of dirt in backfill, concrete should surround the skimmer, pool in level, rough-grading around pool, no construction debris in pool, no construction debris left behind, and lastly the debated topic of rigid vs. flex pipe). LPUSA tech said rigid pipe everywhere (no flex pipe) and the regional rep said he wouldn’t use flex hose in his pool (though he knows some installers still use it to speed up installation).
All of the above led us to create a new scope-of-work document and submit it to the pool company. They did not push back on any of the items, as they came from the mouth of LPUSA.
Work started yesterday, or sort of. They jerked us around by not communicating well around weather delays. Sunday night they finally said they would start Monday. I asked what time because we have this high-cost job supervisor. They replied “mid-morning.” I then asked them for a time and they finally responded “9am.” This is the kind of jerky treatment that LPUSA can’t stand to see from their installers. We asked our guy to be here at 9am.
Yesterday, two guys showed up with a Bobcat, but forgot the pump to empty the pool, so they both left the job site and left our guy there with nothing to do and no idea when they would be back (their office is 10 miles from our house). They showed back up 2hrs later at 11am. Not a good start and my blood began boiling. I left my job midday and took two more vacation days to be here also.
Work moved at a snail’s pace and it looked like they’re slow-rolling us to bleed us dry on our consultants’ fees. They then informed us that the crane would not be here on Day 2, as per their schedule. We are apparently a low-priority job and it was being used at another site.
I contacted our executive at LPUSA and informed them what was going on and he made another call to the pool company. At this point, although he was helpful, he explained that he just can’t force them to do things. Ultimately, the pool installer is going to do what they’re going to do.
At the end of Day 1 (Monday/yesterday) they had knocked ¾ of the collar off and dug a pit at the pool plumbing juncture toward the equipment pad. Rather than digging it deep enough and doing clean cuts, they jammed the sawzall into the dirt and chopped out a section of all the pipes. Then they allowed dirt and gravel to fill back into the pipes and did not cap the clean ends going to the equipment, as specified in the work document (picture below).
Today they had to reverse flush the pipes to get all the crud out and then they capped them. Even the job supervisor was shocked at the horrendous work practices of these guys. He has to watch everything that they do, because they cannot be trusted to do things even as they say they’re going to do them.
I put up a Wyze “Pool Cam” camera on the project and enrolled in continuous recording to their cloud, so the entire project is captured. I know some of you were frothing at the mouth to see the carnage. Trust me, I’ll post it if anything goes terribly wrong.
So if you’ve read this far, thank you… I do have a question for the forum pool builders:
The pool installer is not confident that they can back-fill properly under the steps and benches. They have suggested back-filling with gravel up to a certain point and then using a “flow fill mix” to fill in the remainder of the undersides. Is this acceptable? Thanks in advance.
